CFP: Industrial Labour & Literary Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century

Call for papers, deadline 30 January 2019

Piston, Pen & Press is a new and interesting UK based labour history research project led by the University of Strathclyde with the University of Manchester and the National Railway Museum. Project aims to understand how industrial workers, from the 1840s to the 1910s, engaged with literary culture through writing, reading, and participation in wider cultural activities.

Together with Finnish Labour Museum the project will organise a one-day conference in Tampere, Finland, Friday 7th June 2019. Call for papers will be closed 30 January 2019. Read the full CFP.

How did the industrial working-class engage with literary culture in the long nineteenth century? How far was their engagement determined by their industrial occupation? What can the literary productions of industrial working-class writers tell us about the processes of identity formation? How can the industrial working-class’s engagement with literary culture be used by industrial heritage and labour museums both to deepen our understanding of industrial/working-class history and make that knowledge available to the wider public? These are some of the key questions which underpin the AHRC-funded (2018-2021) Piston, Pen & Press project (www.pistonpenandpress.org).

The conference organisers welcome proposals for 20 minute papers (in English) on any of the following topics:

  • The ways in which European industrial workers represented themselves, their labour and/or the labour process in literary forms such as; poetry, song, fiction, autobiography, memoir.
  • The role played by literary culture in producing working-class identities.
  • The ways in which industrial workers gained access to literary culture through reading groups, reading rooms, mutual improvement societies, literary societies, libraries etc (irrespective of whether these were created by or for the workers).
  • The role played by the industrial working-class engagement with literary culture in industrial heritage/labour museums in the C21st.

READ MORE from the project website about funding possibilities for participants and details for posting your paper proposal. The conference organisers also hope to publish some of the conference proceedings. Please distribute the CFP and the link to the conference website for researchers interested in this filed of labour history!

Full CFP: https://www.pistonpenandpress.org/events/
Piston, Pen & Press in Twitter: @PistonPen

Kalle Kallio
Chairman of WORKLAB - International Association of Labour Museums http://www.worklab.info

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